


Unpleasant lunch

by justii15



Series: We meet at the pond [1]
Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: Co-workers, First Crush, M/M, Secret Crush, Sweet, Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 08:27:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20636141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justii15/pseuds/justii15
Summary: New job, new people, new adventure. What can happen?





	Unpleasant lunch

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story here. You may notice that English is not entirely my native language, so please excuse the possible mistakes that may occur here.

Leonid stepped nervously next to the front door of the building. Today was his first day when he was due to start work at the nuclear power plant.

He quietly watched passersby employees. Everyone was talking, laughing, and he sometimes heard snatches of their conversations. They were all talking about work, today's shift, family and plans for the weekend.

Two of the men walking just past him stopped. They looked at Leonid and noticed his nervousness.

“Can we help you?” the older one asked him.

Leonid shook his head. “I'm here for the first time, waiting for Akimov, to take care of me,” he told them and swallow.

“Yeah, we don't envy you,” one of them smiled.

Leonid didn't understand. He had always been a mockery, but he couldn't see the only reasonable reason that amused both men so much.

“You will certainly enjoy it,” the other continued. “Sasha is quiet and mysterious. None of us knows what to think of him. But you may be the one who warms his cold heart,” they laughed again loudly, patting Leonid on the shoulder and wishing him good luck.

Suddenly he was embarrassed even more. The shift wasn’t even started and he already knew it wouldn't be easy.

After a few minutes, the glass door opened and a man came out, wearing a white dress and coat, with large black glasses and a thick mustache under his nose. He looks much older than him.

“Leonid Toptunov?” he asked, looking at him as suspiciously like the previous men.

“Y…yes,” he stammered nervously. He knew in his head that he must not show uncertainty, but when he saw a person who was not described as pleasant to him, he was horrified.

“Aleksandr Akimov,” he held out a welcome hand. “Can we go?” he asked, holding the door for Leonid.

“Sure,” he nodded, and came in first.

“I'll show you the most important things yet,” he told him, leading him through the long corridor that turned right at the end.

Together they reached the wooden door.

“Here is dressing room. Go, change your clothes, i gave you there a new uniform. If you even want, there are showers,”he explained. “I'll wait here,” and he sat on the bench  
opposite the door.

Without speaking, Leonid grabed for the door handle and open. Fortunately, there was no one inside, what released a huge stone from his heart. He didn't want to talk to anyone, and he didn't want to be watched when he will change his clothes. They would have laughed at him, probably he is the youngest of them all.

“Everything alright?” Sasha asked him as he came back into the hall.

“Yes, Comrade Akimov,” he said nervously.

“Sasha,” he turned to him. “Call me Sasha,” he smiled shyly.

Leonid feel more comfortable. Maybe his boss wouldn't be what the men he met said. Maybe he's not just telling anyone about his life.

They climbed the stairs two floors higher, where the control room was. The place Leonid was supposed to work. Sasha opened the door and let Leonid inside.

How huge it was here. A lot of panels and buttons that he didn't even know what it was for.

Then his eyes fell on the other two men, talking together in the corner of the room, leaning against the panel. One of them smoked, and apparently they had a lot of fun. He stared at them, they stared at him.

“Boris, Igor,” Sasha said, “don't just stand there, do your job,” he ordered, seeing they do not pay attention to what is happening to the reactor.

“Is that the new one?” asked man with glasses and a mustache, pushing the cigarette into the ashtray. He turned a few buttons and leaned back comfortably on the panel.

“Yes, that's Leonid,” he introduced their new colleague.

“Igor,” the other man said.

“Boris,” told firts man. “It's okay here, the guys downstairs are a little more annoying than us.”

“Annoying?” Leonid asked, frightened again.

“They like to mess with novices,” he explained. “But don't worry, it quickly stops entertaining them.”

Leonid was embarrassed. The first job, and he will be ridiculed. He doesn't really know anybody here, but he feels like everybody is right against him.

Sasha interrupted him from thought. “Come on, I'll show you what you're going to do. Have you ever worked with a similar device?” he asked him.

Leonid shook his head. Sasha let him go to the panel and explained what each button was doing and what his main job would be.

He was quite surprised to see how Leonid was teachable and he knew what the button was for without ever working in a power plant. He was a little relieved that he wouldn't have to spend so much time with him and explain everything to him.

“If you don't know anything, I'll always be here,” he offered his help at any time. “Or ask Igor and Boris,” he added. “They are in charge of other operations, but they could advise you, ” and looked at them. The two nodded in agreement.

Throughout the morning he tried to capture as much information as possible about his work. He read various manuals, watched the boys in action, and watched quietly to repeat the individual procedures flawlessly next time.

“Are you going to lunch?” Boris asked as he mistakenly looked at his watch and noticed that it was time for good food. Even his stomach slowly began to suggest.

Igor agreed, and both looked at Sasha and Leonid to see if they would join them.

“Sure,” Sasha assured them, turning to Leonid. “Come with us, at least I'll show you where the canteen is.”

All four of them left the room and dirrect into the main hall, where the canteen was on the left side. They walked in, but Leonid noticed the other power plant workers looking at him. Everyone knew it must be the new one who was supposed to come here today.

“Ignore them,” Sasha whispered when he saw Leonid stared back at them.

Leonid turned quickly, took a plate of food, and followed the other boys to the table. He still couldn't get rid of the discomfort the whole canteen looked at him. He was afraid to even take a bite in his mouth so they wouldn't laugh.

Igor noticed his troubled expression when he sipped the soup warily.

“Everyone started here once,” he reassured him. “They all looked at us the same way from the beginning.”

“Yeah,” Sasha said. "They think that when they are older and have a family at home, they can suddenly judge all the younger," Sasha shook his head.

“You don't have a family?” slipped out of him. He didn't understand how he would ask that.

“No,” Sasha confessed concerned, saying nothing more.

“He's waiting for the right woman,” Boris said. “I've never actually seen you with anybody,” he added, remembering that he had known Sasha for some year.

“I'm not pulling my private life to work,” he growled at him, and continued to eat.

Boris preferred to get out of his way. He knew he had touched that side of Sasha, which was already over. Again the good old grumpy Sasha, he thought.

Leonid quietly watched their swift exchange of views. When his eyes met the Sasha's for a moment, he noticed a flash of rage, but also a little nervousness about a thing he obviously didn't want to talk about.

“I don't have anyone either,” Leonid went on to draw attention. “I was hoping when I moved here, I could meet someone here.”

“What kind of girls do you like?" Boris asked when he saw another target for his curious questions.

“I don't know,” he shrugged. “I prefer to be comfortable with her, not for what she looks like.”

“Right,” Igor applauded softly, agreeing with his comment and the way he chooses the girls.

Leonid was still looking at Sasha. He fell silent, stopped talking to them, and continued to eat.

After lunch, when Sasha went to the bathroom, Leonid took the opportunity to follow him unobtrusively.

“I'm sorry what Boris said,” he told him when they washed their hands. “ I shouldn't have started this conversation.”

“Don't worry about it, I'm just not used to talking about these things,” he replied dryly.

Leonid had a lot of questions in his head to ask him, but he didn't want to scatter his boss the first day. Instead, he was silent, wiping his hands, and they both returned to the control room, where all four of them continued to the end of the shift without further personal questions.


End file.
